Friday, July 29, 2011

Strong yen, earthquake and piracy: Sony revises forecast downward

The giant Japanese consumer electronics Sony revised its earnings forecast significantly down on Thursday in the publication of its quarterly results. The company, which announced $ 140 million loss this quarter, reduced by over 20% of its earnings forecast for the year. Sony is suffering from a combination of difficulties that led him to revise its forecast just two months after the publication of the latter.

Like other Japanese giants, including Nintendo, Sony is hampered by a strong yen, which reduces its export capacity. The company has also been directly affected by the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan, it estimated $ 47 million damage caused by the natural disaster in its factories in the north.

Some of this damage will, however, supported by insurance, and Sony will ensure the rehabilitation of factories moving faster than expected. On the commercial side, sales of flat screen TVs have been well below expectations, like those from Samsung, one of its main competitors. Sony's music division, traditionally one of the least profitable, saw its turnover fall by 0.6%, while its film division was experiencing a rise of over 9% of its revenues, driven notably by The Hornet Green and Karate Kid.

Finally, Sony has also suffered in April, a major piracy PlayStation Network, a network of online gaming. NSP had been unavailable for several weeks in some areas, creating a shortfall for the company and an adverse effect on its image. Sony had previously estimated that the hackers would have an impact of 122 million euros on its results.